Save Water, 'Shower With Friends' App Could Help California Drought

8 Sep 2014

A mobile app which seeks to help reduce water consumption called Shower With Friends won first place at Sunday’s TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2014 Hackathon in San Francisco.

Contrary to its moniker, the app does not encourage users to literally shower with their friends, but rather provides a platform with which to compete with friends for the shortest time while showering… alone.

Shower With Friends users would receive alerts via text message as to the duration of their shower and how many gallons of water they’ve used, as compared with previous days, according to Tech Crunch. That information could then be shared with friends to encourage friendly competition while working towards what the app’s creators view as a way to reduce each person’s shower time, their goal being by at least three minutes.

California is in the midst of a fourth year of devastating drought. Shower With Friends could provide a fun incentive for Californians to get excited about water conservation. The drought has so far been estimated to cost the Golden State $2.2 billion this year alone, the loss of 17,000 farming jobs statewide, and has even resulted in the ground literally rising above the earth’s surface.